Officer Deaths Prompt Safety Review : Police: Two motorcycle patrolmen have died and three have been injured recently in the Valley. Officials want to study training and procedures.

Even as a San Fernando Valley motorcycle police officer killed in a traffic accident was buried Wednesday, Los Angeles police officials announced plans to review the training, equipment and operations of all Valley motorcycle officers because of a series of accidents and deaths.

The review was ordered following the deaths of two motorcycle officers and injury of at least three others in the past two months, said Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker.

He made the announcement as fellow officers attended a funeral in Newhall for Officer David Schmid, 34, of Palmdale, a Valley traffic officer killed when a car struck his cycle in Lancaster last week.

“We do not want to assume that what we have with this sudden increase in traffic accidents is a fluke,” Kroeker said. “I know for us to sit here and watch this continue would be irresponsible.”

Kroeker said Capt. John Mutz, commander of the Valley Traffic Division, will head the review that will examine department equipment, safety procedures and whether the officers’ work schedules are fatiguing them beyond safety limits for motorcycle operation.

Kroeker noted that Schmid had worked a special night patrol shift following the outbreak of violence in South Central Los Angeles six hours before he was struck and killed by a car on his way to work his regular day shift.

Kroeker said investigators plan to reconstruct each of the accidents from “stem to stern.” Police administrators will also examine the effect of peer pressure on motorcycle officers.

“If an officer is beginning to demonstrate a propensity to be less careful, do his or her peers exert pressure on that officer to be more careful or do they encourage it?” Kroeker said.

Meanwhile, sheriff’s deputies said they expect to ask prosecutors to file a misdemeanor manslaughter charge against Denise Louise Elletson, 34, of Palmdale, the driver who made a left turn in front of Schmid’s motorcycle on Pearblossom Highway at 40th Street East.

Deputy David Davidson, a traffic investigator at the sheriff’s Antelope Valley station, said the request could be made to the District Attorney’s office as early as next week. Davidson said he is waiting for test results on whether Elletson was intoxicated, which he expects will be negative.

Elletson was at fault in the collision, but was not driving recklessly, Davidson said. “It looks like it was just a tragic accident,” he said. “We’ll handle it just like any other case.”

Elletson has told investigators she did not see Schmid’s motorcycle, Davidson added.

Schmid’s death came just months after a fatal traffic collision that killed Officer Raymond A. (Skip) Messerly Jr., 42, of Acton, who died of massive trauma to the head and neck in October after he was taken off life support at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, police said. Messerly, a motorcycle officer, was hospitalized after colliding with a car at Sepulveda and Victory boulevards in Van Nuys.

Messerly was among the 35 Los Angeles officers to date who have died in motorcycle crashes, Officer Art Holmes said.

Kroeker said 84 motorcycle officers patrol the 220 square miles that compose the Valley traffic division. Another 100 officers investigate accidents and issue tickets for traffic violations, he said.